"Programme, get your programme," bellowed an official vendor outside Fir Park - to whom he was addressing, and why, was anyone's guess; it was not as if there was anyone there to hear him.

Three sides of the ground lay vacant save for a handful of yellow-jacketed stewards as Gretna broke the most unwanted record in the SPL with the lowest attendance since the league's inception.

A mere 1092 (it looked like even less) saw Davie Irons' nomads fall to another defeat, and to put that figure in perspective almost 500 more supporters turned up to watch the first division's bottom side Stirling Albion host fellow strugglers Dunfermline.

Not that Irons was unduly concerned.

"What do you expect from a village of 3000 people playing against a team that are the furthest north in the country," he said. "I hear these comments about our fans but for us to be asked to build a stadium for 6000 people in a village of 2000 is just ridiculous."

Irons' assessment raised an intriguing question: do all SPL teams have to be big?

"In the NFL, Buffalo are one of the smallest teams but the NFL actually try to help teams with a small fanbase. We need help as far as the conditions of building a stadium are concerned. Other countries seem to help their smaller teams, here we seem to put financial constraints on them."

Inverness have faced similar issues over stadium capacity in the past, but they are now providing a template for how the provincial top-flight teams can survive with a small fanbase.

For their part, they produced a record of their own: introduced by the hosts' PA announcer as Livingston Caledonian Thistle, they racked up their highest away victory in the SPL since arriving in the top flight three years ago, but that fact said more about Gretna's inability to defend than Caley's attacking skills.

David Cowan's inexplicable push on Ross Tokely inside the area in the second minute set the tone and Dennis Wyness converted the resulting spot kick for his 101st goal for the club. Thereafter it was always going to be a matter of how many the visitors won by.

Martin Grainger's foul on Wyness after 30 minutes gave Don Cowie the chance to hammer a free-kick goalwards which Tony Caig, the Gretna keeper, was slow to react to and the ball nestled in the bottom corner.

Barry Wilson and Roy McBain then added two goals in two minutes after the break. Both were works of art but the second was the more exquisite - a fizzing shot from 30 yards which moved one way then the other before crashing off the underside of the bar and in.

Not for the first time this season Inverness failed to provide a player for the post-match press conference but then, as Irons had pointed out earlier, they did have a coach to catch.